‘Syria violence kills 5, including 2 children’

Beirut: Five people, including two children,
were killed in violence across Syria on Friday as forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad fired on several protests, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The two children were killed in an explosion near a
cultural centre in Kfartakharim in the northwestern Idlib
region, the Britain-based Observatory said adding that
residents were greatly angered by the incident.

The activist group said at dawn two civilians were shot
dead on farms in the flashpoint town of Rankus, near Damascus.

In the southern Daraa region, where the 10-month-old
uprising against the Assad regime began, a soldier was killed
and five others injured in clashes in the town of Jassem
between government forces and fighters from the deserter Free
Syrian Army.

In Idlib region, the watchdog said, massive protests were
held marking the notorious 1982 massacre in the city of Hama.

In the coastal town of Latakia protests began despite a huge
presence of security forces who fired gunshots to disperse the
crowds.

The Observatory said nearly 10,000 mourners turned out
for a funeral march in Dael for a person who died in prison.

Protesters also gathered in Yabrod, in Damascus province,
after Friday prayers, the activists said.